Gen Chem

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Hi All,

I was just doing a question in my destroyer and was confused.

The question showed me the elementary steps of a few reactions and asked me which reaction was least likely to occur.

The answer was the reaction that had the most reactants was least likely to occur due to the lessened occurrence of a collision.

I was under the impression that more reactants = higher chance of products. Can someone tell me where I went wrong?

 

[O Gaúcho]

A first-order reaction is one whose rate depends on the concentration of a single reactant raised to the first power.
A second-order reaction is one for which the rate depends either on a reactant concentration raised to the second power or on the concentrations of two reactants each raised to the first power. And a third-order would involve a a reactant to the power of 3 or three reactants to the power of 1.
So the chance of 3 molecules colliding at the correct orientation is VERY rare. In fact you kinda just assume they never happen. The rate of reaction depends on a lot of things and one of them being orientation.

 

[DAT Destroyer]

Hi All,

I was just doing a question in my destroyer and was confused.

The question showed me the elementary steps of a few reactions and asked me which reaction was least likely to occur.

The answer was the reaction that had the most reactants was least likely to occur due to the lessened occurrence of a collision.

I was under the impression that more reactants = higher chance of products. Can someone tell me where I went wrong?

The question stated it was an ELEMENTARY reaction.....meaning it was part of the mechanism.......
More than 2 particles are quite rare.


Hope this helps.